Complete Story
04/26/2018
Facebook change continues to bring traffic drop to local news sites
When Facebook changed its algorithm earlier this year to focus on “meaningful” interactions, publishers across the board were hit hard. However, local news seemed particularly vulnerable to the alterations.
To assuage this issue, the company announced that it would prioritize news related to local towns and metro areas where a user resided, thus restoring some of the lost interactions and traffic to those news outlets.
Mark Zuckerburg stated in a posting on his personal Facebook page: “People consistently tell us they want to see more local news on Facebook. Local news helps us understand the issues that matter in our communities and affect our lives … Local news helps build community—both on and offline. It’s an important part of making sure the time we all spend on Facebook is valuable,” as part of the announcement of the algorithm tweak in local news’ favor.
